


A Little Insulted

by Shiori_Makiba



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Dorks in Love, Established Relationship, M/M, Male Homosexuality, POV Victor Nikiforov, Reminiscing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-24 07:40:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14950445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shiori_Makiba/pseuds/Shiori_Makiba
Summary: Victor wasn't THAT much of airhead, thank you very much.





	A Little Insulted

He had been prepared to disbelieve it when he first heard it but Yuri himself had shyly confirmed that he thought Victor hadn't recognized him at Sochi. That Victor had identified him as just another fan and not a fellow skater. As much as he loved and adored Yuri, Victor felt a little insulted.

Yes, it had taken him a bit to remember what Yuri's name was but he had immediately known he was another skater.

First, they had still been in the restricted part of the arena. Where only skaters, coaches, and various and sundry ISU personal were allowed. Granted any one of those could have been a fan of his, taking advantage of the restricted access to get an autograph or photo without having to fight through his usual crowd of fans hoping for the same thing. It had happen before. Victor didn't mind as long as person doing it wasn't rude about it.

Secondly, it was the Grand Prix Final. There were only five other skaters competing in his discipline. He had been competing against Chris and Cao for years. Crispino and Leroy were newer faces but he tended to remember people who had shared the podium with him that season. Especially if they had done so in the past. Yuri was the most unfamiliar face.

Victor was an airhead. He knew it. Everyone who actually knew him knew it too. But he wasn't so much of an airhead that he couldn't remember the face of a skater he had just competed against, thank you very much.

Especially one who had skated so beautifully. His short program had been excellent. A little safe in both the layout and music choices perhaps but wonderfully executed. Clean – high GOE on all of the technical elements. Clear, crisp edges – his footwork was best Victor had ever seen. The same musicality and heart that Victor would later come to expect.

His free skate, admittedly, could have gone better. A lot better. He had seen more than one person wince. He had to resist the urge to do so himself. He hated it when another skater had that bad of a skate. In part because it was so easy to imagine himself in their skates. He might be the World Champion several times over and reigning Olympic Gold medalist but no skater was immune from having a bad skate.

The other part was when Victor won, he wanted it to be clear that he had won because he was the best. It didn't feel so clear-cut when one or more of his fellow skaters had especially bad skates. Made the victory feel . . . a little hollow to be honest. And close competitions were more fun – they got his blood pumping, made him feel alive. The fans seemed to find them more fun too. The cheering was always louder during those competitions.

No matter much the pressure made his Yuri want to go hide somewhere, the younger man did agree it was more fun when the competition was close.

It had been obvious, even to a stranger like Victor had been at the time, that something was wrong. Watching the footage after he had gotten to know Yuri better had it even more obvious that something was wrong. While the falls on all of his jumping passes were the most obvious errors, Victor hadn't missed just how sloppy Yuri's edges had been. Nor how little his mind was on the performance even before he started falling. Neither had the judges. That was probably Yuri's worst PCS score in his entire international career.

Victor would have chalked entirely up to nerves but it had looked more like Yuri was trying not to cry than like he was nervous when he took the ice. Victor hadn't been sure. He wasn't the best at picking up on that sort of thing – not when it was off-ice stuff. This seemed like off-ice stuff. The music choice (which, again, was rather safe and a bit dull) was upbeat so it didn't seem like it was part of his character for the performance.

As for the photo offer – well, Victor had always tried to get a photo with his fellow skaters at this kind of events, especially if they were unfamiliar to him and didn't seem like jerks. And he had been trying to cheer him up. Chris had mentioned while they were changing out of their costumes that Yuri (whom he had known in Juniors) was a fan of his.

Obviously, his attempt backfired. A lot. Through he didn't realize until later just how much. And he half-expected his attempt to go at least a little sideways. Off the ice, he had a hard time keeping his foot out of his mouth. There was a very good reason he mostly stuck to smiling and a set of almost scripted lines when dealing with the press.

Or his fans. Don't get him wrong. Victor loved his fans and appreciated their support. He didn't mind talking to them. Not exactly. He just knew that he had more than once offended or hurt someone when he hadn't meant to because he had said the wrong thing or the tone wasn't right or something else was wrong. 

And he didn't want to disappoint his fans. Most of them had bought the image he projected. One of someone who was suave, sophisticated, confident. The image even felt real since it was, to a degree, all true.

But what was also true that was he was a dork. The Dork, according to Yurio, The Dorkiest Dork That Had Ever Lived On Planet Dork. The World Champion of Dorks.

Victor might have taken offense to all that, regardless of whether or not it was true, if Yuri hadn't whispered in his ear that he might be a dork but he was **Yuri's** dork. So it was all alright. He might be a airheaded dork with chronic foot in mouth disease but he was Yuri's airheaded dork with chronic foot in mouth disease.

He couldn't be happier knowing that.

**Author's Note:**

> A bit of personal headcanon.
> 
> EDIT 6/17: Corrected a few typos and other similar errors that I missed.


End file.
